Stunning
but undefined: The clouds loom over the skies of New Zealand - but unfortunately
words can't describe this dramatic vision from the heavensMeteorologists campaign to classify unique 'Asperatus' clouds seen across the world
Daily Mail News
By Luke Salkeld
02 June 2009
Stunning
but undefined: The clouds loom over the skies of New Zealand - but unfortunately
words can't describe this dramatic vision from the heavens
Whipped into fantastical shapes, these clouds hang over the darkening landscape like the harbingers of a mighty storm.
But despite their stunning and frequent appearances, the formations have yet to be officially recognised with a name.
They have been seen all over Britain in different forms - from Snowdonia to the Scottish Highlands - and in other parts of the world such as New Zealand, but usually break up without producing a storm.
And some experts believe the stormy weather phenomenon deserves
its very own classification.
Experts at the Royal Meteorological Society are now attempting to make it official
by naming it 'Asperatus' after the Latin word for 'rough'.
If they are successful, it would be the first variety of cloud formation to
be given a new label in over half a century
'It is a bit like looking at the surface of a choppy sea from below,' said Gavin
Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, who identified the
cloud from photographs sent in by members.
"
'We try to identify and classify all of the images of clouds we get in, but
there were some that just didn't seem to fit in any of the other categories,
so I began to think it might be a unique type of cloud'."
He added: 'The underside of the clouds are quite rough and choppy. It looks
very stormy, but some of the reports we have been getting suggest that they
tend to break up without actually turning into a storm.'
The Royal Meteorological Society is now gathering detailed information for the days and locations where the asperatus clouds have been seen in an attempt to understand exactly what is causing them.
Officials
will then apply to the UN's World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva to have
the new cloud type considered for addition into the International Cloud Atlas,
the system used by meteorologists across the globe.
Professor Paul Hardaker, Chief Executive of the RMS, said: 'There would probably
need to be quite a lot of heat around to produce the energy needed to generate
such dramatic cloud formations.
'They are quite dark structures so there must be a lot of water vapour condensing
in the cloud.
